You'll see that outside of an improved friends feature most of the updates at this stage are visual ones, with most of Steam's core functionality remaining the same, meaning you can jump in and find your way around with no problems. The bigger improvements, like an in-Steam news service, are yet to be implemented. Here then are the highlights, showing how the update has affected each of Steam's key areas.

Your library now has a few display options, including this iTunes-like tiled display. It's pretty, but if you've got more than a dozen games installed, takes a while to load.

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Here's your "standard" library screen, which now has some artwork to liven things up. Also note the handy little cloud icon indicating support for Steamworks.

Here's the settings screen. As you can see, it's exactly the same, so you won't have any issues tinkering with your setup.

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Not much has changed at the store's front page, either, though it does look a lot more presentable.

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The individual pages in the store have been tidied up, the clutter of information and links streamlined into something much more manageable.

Game info pages are now much more helpful, presenting all kinds of useful information like how many of your friends are currently playing a game, and what achievements are on offer. While we're on the subject...are those some Half-Life 2 achievements I see there?

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The downloads area is now a little more informative. Incidentally, as you can see, for some reason Steam began downloading Modern Warfare 2's multiplayer mode all over again, despite the fact I already had it installed. All 7.5GB of it. This happen to anyone else?